Patent attributes
A laser range finder system to determine the range of a target including a laser pulse generating device and a laser amplifier for amplifying laser pulses to produce amplified laser pulses. Amplified laser pulses are transmitted toward a target and a laser pulse echoes reflected by a target are received by a receiver. The receiver includes a laser light detector and dual signal conditioning channels to condition and amplify signals derived from detected laser light and output conditioned signals. A high-gain channel amplifies laser pulse echoes having relatively lower signal power and a low-gain channel amplifies laser pulse echoes having relatively higher signal power. A digitizer produce samples of laser pulses and converts the samples to digital signals. A processing element processes the digital signals to determine an echo signature, a time of flight to the target and a range to the target.
